Emerging from Hawaiian seclusion. That's the New York Times, friends, talking about emerging from Hawaii seclusion and trying to quell the gathering criticism....

That's the first paragraph. Then this:

“We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable,” Mr. Obama told reporters during a break in his 10-day holiday vacation. “This was a serious reminder of the dangers that we face and the nature of those who threaten our homeland.”

You will not rest? But you are in Hawaii. And you didn't even put on a tie.... You are resting. And you were resting when this happened.

141 comments:

Do I notice NYT doing a little Drudge sneaky photo comparison. Writing of Obama on one side, whilst juxtaposing it with the mugshot of a baby-faced, seemingly lovable-looking African, who was clearly in over his head with the terrible task they gave him.

Obama's simply resting in a non-Althouse-approved manner. To suit our hostess, Obama should clear brush on Mrs. Rezko's lot back home in Hyde Park. Then he can ride his mountain bike along Lake Michigan.

A guy tries to take down a flight with a bomb, and Obama sleeps in. A child gets hit with a surfboard, and Obama rushes from the golf course.

Now, I'm concerned with the child's safety and health too. And certainly, that's more important than golf. But a POTUS has a bit more responsibility for the safety and security of US citizens than Obama has so far shown.

Speaking of Drudge, the link I posted last night, about a well-dressed man helping out young Umar to get on the plane without a passport, is in red on Drudge's first column. Let's see if the story takes off.

Today, I was listening to talk radio, when a caller to the Schnitt Show claimed he had been on the same flight the previous week, when he noticed his two neighbours seated in different rows (who seemingly didn't know each other, since they didn't exchange any words previously) suddenly giving each other silent hand signals. The woman had used the bathroom NINE times, which at first didn't seem strange because she could've had some kind of upset or ladies problem. The man, who the caller identified as Middle Eastern (he himself was Orthodox Jewish), was seated in the same seat Umar later sat in.

Caller emailed NWA just to share this info, in case it speaks to a dry run of some kind, but so far, he has gotten no reply.

I think it was Chuck B. who said that the Christmas even could've been the dry run, and later they would send 10 chuckleheads given the info they culled to see where the chinks in the armour are. Maybe it was the other way around...

“We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us, whether they are from Afghanistan or Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia, or anywhere they are plotting attacks against the U.S. homeland,”

I know this is repetitious, but if a bunch of middle aged scout dads ever take it into their head to blow something up, it'll be ugly.

I continue to be amazed at how *bad* these guys are at this, in general. For a while in Iraq the bomber-dudes were hitting a pretty good streak, but it seems as if the troopies may have shot the four (or pick your number) smart guys at some point. Probably intifada/2 fizzled from the same sort of Peter Principle Pistolerism.

It's not clear to me how an American could move in a certifiably hostile country (ex: Pakistan) but an intermediate country (Russia, Argentina) would be a piece of cake.

W. spent more time on vacation than any modern president without a peep out of Althouse.

This would be relevant if the point of the post was that Obama shouldn't take vacations. But of course the point of this post is very different. Namely, the author seems to be indicating that the President shouldn't claim that he won't be taking any vacations when he is in in fact on vacation- because when he does that, he looks, and sounds, like a clown.

Now, did you fail to engage the author's actual point because you were too simplistic to realize it, or rather because you were so psychologically wed to the image of Obama as competent that you were incapable of even entertaining the author's point?

I wonder how president panty waist is going to try to make up for his non-response to the terror attack? I'm mean, I'm glad to see him spring into action when a child gets beaned with a beach ball, but that's not what I was looking for.

Ann, the Gray Lady is worried that their super-majority in Congress will go a-glimmering in the next election. The Zero is starting to make them look bad (of course, with people like Max 100-proof Baucas, that's not hard). Finding incompetent Democrats like Bambi and Kerry to run for President is ridiculously easy, but that majority will never come again.

J. Galt said...

W. spent more time on vacation than any modern president without a peep out of Althouse.

Yes, and he still kept this country safe, no thanks to the Democrat Party and its fellow travelers.

I will not rest until I am fully rested, and the rest of you can just keep on doing whatever it is you do along with the rest of the rest for the rest of my term. You can wrest whatever you wish out of that. Or something.

Whether Obama is reacting publicly to the news of a botched terrorist attack or we launch another failed war in, say, Yemen, nothing is going to stop random terrorists all over the world from trying to blow up airplanes and kill Americans. You've been having a nervous breakdown the past two days because Obama is in Hawaii? Grow up.

In fact, I'm going to manufacture small vials of squism and start selling them. I need the right product to represent the Althouse blog. None of these T-shirts and coffee mugs with logos. A nice vial of squism, perhaps on a key chain or silk cord to hang around your neck. Or as part of a lanyard for your iPod shuffle to listen to podcasts...

1. His actions before the incident. He appointed a nitwit to lead Homeland Security. Despite his firm belief that everything was screwed up under Bush, he failed to institute a review of nitty gritty day to day procedures for security. Instead he focused on symbolism, Gitmo and trying KSM in the USA.

2. His actions after the incident. He displayed the leadership priorities of a high school class president on a surf safari.

when I hear Obama say those responsible will be held accountable I think a long drawn out trial in NYC or a fine or a court order requiring them to remain more than 100 yards from any planes while carrying explosives. Kind of like the way he held the New Black Panthers "accountable" ...

If Bush said they'd be held accountable everyone knew he meant dead ...

My first reaction was that Obama can stay in Hawaii if he wants so long as he fires Napolitano for her awful display in those three TV appearances Sunday morning.

But he can't fire Napolitano because she was obediently following orders. She spewed the line she was given by her White House press handlers. Robert Gibbs was putting forth the same line, and they were the only ones speaking about it, so it sure seems like an orchestrated media effort.

So... this means that nobody in an actual position of responsibility in the government was able, after the BombBalls Incident, to look it at in an honest way and speak honestly about it. The press office ruled. It was just like after Hurricane Katrina, where everybody and their mother could see that things were fucked up, but the press-office-driven administration insisted that it was just a little rainstorm and all was fine.

The problem here is that press people with no responsibility and no actual administrative experience are dictating the first public responses to bona fide emergencies. The people seem to be concerned and in search of answers, but they are being fed a line designed for MSM consumption. It's contrived and not authentic and everyone knows it.

A few days go by and the administration backpeddles. Then finally the people in responsibility start to speak without the yoke of the press office on them, and they can do so more honestly.

Something is very, very wrong with this. The office lights are on for the administration but no one is working! In our modern connected ultra-fast world, we can't have 48 hours of drivel come out every time something significant happens. It's weak, pathetic, irresponsible, and it totally disregards what the people seem to want from the administration.

I lived through the '60s, '70s, & '80s. Perhaps you will recall that during that time we all lived with the possibility that the Soviet Union would launch a strike that would kill us all. KaBOOM! Every day we faced that possibility. Yet, presidents like Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, & GHWBush took vacations. You are descending to crank status with this nonsense. Do you get more coins in the tipjar when you stoke the fear engine? Grow up, please.

I really enjoyed the film "May 6", the historical-fiction about the killing of that Pim Fortuyn fella in Netherlands, made by van Gogh a few years back.

In it, there's a few Turkish characters that figure prominently in the story and that are highly suspect b/c of their Muslim-ness amongst the piously white secularist natives, but the best lines are theirs, when they're talking about "the beards" and how the one of them left Turkey because "the beards" were gaining power there.

Folks, regardless of one's religion, it's a fairly common trait of our shared humanity to be rather moderate in our wants and desires for a life in which we're allowed to pursue happiness and a decent living.

Unfortunately, it's also rather common that the fucking asshole weirdo's that tend towards extremist fucking-up of things for the rest of us are usually the dickheads wearing beards. I mean those "religious" beards, not just the ordinary grunge-rocker facial pubes.

My favorite part about the 2 conspirators is that they were repatriated from Gitmo to Saudi Arabia so they could undergo art therapy.

No lie.

I imagine them in their class, molding Semtex into attractive shapes.

Also, the point is not that O! is on vacay. The point is that he is "resting" while he vows "never to rest." We ordinarily call this hypocrisy, but it's stunning to see it displayed with such obviousness and obtuseness.

Fly to Copenhage, denounce Amerikkka for carbon emissions, then fly to Hawaii in a big-donkey 757 with a few hundred people for a vacay, then when a crisis hit wait a few hours to be told by your staff, then wait a few days to make an announcement of how seriously you're taking it, then returning to your golf game.

As much as I hate marxism, I hardly think that it's worth worrying about whether its most prominent adherent is in Hawaii or any other place. What he does and his policies are the only important point. Where he does them is moot.

I lived through the '60s, '70s, & '80s. Perhaps you will recall that during that time we all lived with the possibility that the Soviet Union would launch a strike that would kill us all. KaBOOM! Every day we faced that possibility. Yet, presidents like Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, & GHWBush took vacations. You are descending to crank status with this nonsense. Do you get more coins in the tipjar when you stoke the fear engine? Grow up, please.

Maybe you should. I notice the Lefty brigade is getting more and more desperate to validate our Zero-in-Chief.

Most of the people commenting here, as well as the blogress herself, remember the Cold War and they remember that, when something major happened, it didn't take the President, whomever he was, three freaking days to get on TV to speak to the nation, vacation or not.

I lived through the '60s, '70s, & '80s. Perhaps you will recall that during that time we all lived with the possibility that the Soviet Union would launch a strike that would kill us all. KaBOOM!

I recall that era vividly. I also understood that the Soviets, while a bad lot, weren't suicidal religious fanatics with a penchant for creating young men willing to die. Should Iran start manufacturing nuclear weapons or AQ get their hands on a few from their co-religionists in Pakistan, you can rest assured they won't have the same qualms of mutually assured destruction as the Soviets did. Considering that President Obama has all but prostrated himself to the Muslim world that he's not like his predecessor, I'm also fairly sure they won't worry much about a retaliatory strike for that matter.

You don't understand, Matt. Althouse sees blood. She sees weakness. She sees... a horse not as strong as bin Laden!.

They're not concerned with deaths that did or did not occur as a measure of safety... just with having a strong "daddy figure". It's about having a certain image. It's about swagger, it's about bravado... the slight curl of the upper lip, even. It's about saying "fuck the critics" and not taking stock of actual procedures, how they are weak, how they can be improved.

It's about making fun of the president as a way to feel better about the fact that they lost political authority of the country.

We'll see how far it gets. As far as a war strategy, it's at least a little flawed. And as a strategy for keeping America's economy intact, it was a miserable failure.

What it comes down to is that they can't lead anyone through anything other than fear. And when they make the country afraid of how bad they done fucked things up, watch out! That's when they really dig in.

O human beings, you are *enfants terribles*; but I beg you spare this Great Being who has not yet done sleeping off the effects of filthy liquor, and who, not having enough strength left to stand erect, has fallen heavily back against this rock on which, like a traveller, he is seated. Observe this passing beggar. He saw that the dervish was holding out a wasted arm and, without knowing on whom he bestowed alms, threw a scrap of bread at that hand beseeching pity. The Creator expressed his gratitude by a movement of the head. Oh! you will never know how difficult a thing it becomes, constantly to be holding the reins of the universe! Sometimes the blood rushes to the head as one strives to wrest from nothingness a last comet with a new race of spirits. The Mind, overstimulated to its very core, retreats like one defeated, and once in a lifetime may well fall into the aberrations you have witnessed.

They're not concerned with deaths that did or did not occur as a measure of safety... just with having a strong "daddy figure". It's about having a certain image. It's about swagger, it's about bravado... the slight curl of the upper lip, even. It's about saying "fuck the critics" and not taking stock of actual procedures, how they are weak, how they can be improved.

It's about making fun of the president as a way to feel better about the fact that they lost political authority of the country.

We'll see how far it gets. As far as a war strategy, it's at least a little flawed. And as a strategy for keeping America's economy intact, it was a miserable failure.

What it comes down to is that they can't lead anyone through anything other than fear. And when they make the country afraid of how bad they done fucked things up, watch out! That's when they really dig in.

I read that and I honestly can't figure out whether you are talking about the Left or the Right, or both.

But I do agree with it wholeheartedly if you are talking about all of them.

"All across the world, in every kind of environment and region known to man, increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it's here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster."

"The issue of climate change is one that we ignore at our own peril. There may still be disputes about exactly how much we're contributing to the warming of the earth's atmosphere and how much is naturally occurring, but what we can be scientifically certain of is that our continued use of fossil fuels is pushing us to a point of no return. And unless we free ourselves from a dependence on these fossil fuels and chart a new course on energy in this country, we are condemning future generations to global catastrophe."

You're catching the right's urge to think nothing is worth acting on until it has already become too much of a problem to avoid.

Perhaps its because, with respect to man made global warming, many on the right and a few clear thinking individuals on the left, 1) don't believe man is causing global warming, 2) that global warming is not necessarily a bad thing or 3) none of the above.

I remember in high school I was sitting in science class and the teacher was talking about how our sun would one day become red supergiant and engulph the Earth. Needless to say I was horrified. A fellow classmate, equally alarmed, raised her trembling hand an inquired when this apocolyptic nightware was to occur. His response of 4-5 billion years from now told me I had some time and my fears were unfounded.

With regard to global warming, I'm going to put that particular concern on the backburner and save my worries for more pressing matters.

See... that's the whole problem with the Bush approach. They never wanted to codify a damn thing. They seem to have left as much as they could to a judgment call, and avoid dealing with the mess between what's legal and what's not to someone else.

In short, they were constitutional pussies.

It's a minor criticism, but insofar as it made a bigger headache for subsequent administrations, you need to own it.

The timeline of the lifespan of the earth's sun has been known for as long as the concept of it becoming a red dwarf has existed. If your teacher didn't have what was undoubtedly common knowledge at the time, and that caused you to shit your pants, then your reaction now to reacting to science with ignorance is as ill-founded as your reaction then.

You are just substituting reactions. It doesn't mean that you've learned to respect the limitations of your knowledge. You are still making things up about AGW today.

To wit:

Perhaps its because, with respect to man made global warming, many on the right and a few clear thinking individuals on the left, 1) don't believe man is causing global warming, 2) that global warming is not necessarily a bad thing or 3) none of the above.

These are made-up things. Your evidence for them (should you have any use for evidence) is as weak as the evidence you had that the sun would engulf the earth at any point close to your lifetime.

In science, the strongest of the theories survives. Whether you or anyone else likes it or not. Nothing is just "made up". Weaker theories are just that. Weaker theories.

I hope this will put an end to the Palin-for-President talk, because Napolitano was a far more competent and talented Governor of a more populous state than Alaska.

If saying that the 'system worked' is your idea of competence, I'd say you need to raise that bar a tad. Napolitano may have been a competent governor but she isn't exactly blowing my skirt up with her performance thus far.

The one thing that detest Bush for was lowering the expectations of the office of the President to the point where this nation actually elected this guy.

Really? Are you denying that political correctness and multiculturalism - which have both been fingered as culprits in these episodes - are facets of the NewAge movement? Are you denying that they play out as solipsism - another main component of NewAge? And are you denying that NewAge thinking doesn't repeatedly result in the topsy-turvy, upside-down Alice In Wonderland quality we keep seeing? (Go to James Arthur Ray for wealth-building self-help and end up ripped-off and/or dead. Look to Oprah for quality medical advice and she's got you talking to quacks, etc.) Is it really that big of a stretch to say decades of NewAge cultural training is what is at work here? That NewAge culture has made those who partake in it bad at defending good and good at supporting bad?

It seems pretty obvious to me, but then, studying NewAge is what I do. And BTW, since you're so big on checking me at every given opportunity, what are your interests, Matt?

If your teacher didn't have what was undoubtedly common knowledge at the time, and that caused you to shit your pants, then your reaction now to reacting to science with ignorance is as ill-founded as your reaction then.

Lets see, just to be sure the science hasn't changed in the last 30 years I did a quick Google and yep, our sun will become a red supergiant in about 5billion years and engulf the Earth. Just like he said. Reading comprehension issues?

These are made-up things. Your evidence for them (should you have any use for evidence) is as weak as the evidence you had that the sun would engulf the earth at any point close to your lifetime.

No Ritmo, they're not made up. The data from East Anglia was made up. The hockey stick was made up. The wailing from the Prince of Wales that we're 10 years, 5 years, 48 months from complete destruction is made up. Or as Frau Farbissima would say: Lies! All Lies!

. Nothing is just "made up". Weaker theories are just that. Weaker theories.

Well there I would wholeheartedly agree with you. One would think that the East Anglia fabrications would have convinced all but the most fervent.

Ann, I'm not a doctor but suggest that you turn off the modem, stock up on the Depends, schedule an appointment with your shrink, take a couple of Valium (skipping the normal bottle or two of Chardonnay) and basically just chill the ***k out.

I don't know about Julius Ray Hoffman. But with three names he is either a serial killer or one of Althouse's kids.

How convenient. He's the first one who brought it up to me. And not based on anything FLS said but based on something else that I said.

I did a quick Google and yep, our sun will become a red supergiant in about 5billion years and engulf the Earth.

So where's the disagreement?

No Ritmo, they're not made up. The data from East Anglia was made up. The hockey stick was made up. The wailing from the Prince of Wales that we're 10 years, 5 years, 48 months from complete destruction is made up. Or as Frau Farbissima would say: Lies! All Lies!

. Nothing is just "made up". Weaker theories are just that. Weaker theories.

Well there I would wholeheartedly agree with you. One would think that the East Anglia fabrications would have convinced all but the most fervent.

The fact that you confuse the authenticity of data with how it was procured or with how it is presented shows that you still have much to learn about what science is, no matter how long ago you were in high school, with reactions and premature conclusions just as haphazard as they are now.

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents.

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an "art therapy rehabilitation program" and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

Guantanamo prisoner #333, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, and prisoner #372, Said Ali Shari, were sent to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 9, 2007, according to the Defense Department log of detainees who were released from American custody. Al-Harbi has since changed his name to Muhamad al-Awfi.

Obviously, those two should still be at Gitmo. But, of course, our lefty friends like Jeremy say NO ONE should be at Gitmo. They should all be set free, or tried in civilian courts, and never mind that they were captured on a battlefield.

Rest easy, for the Democrats have assured us that this case will be decisively handled in the criminal justice system, in much the same way that OJ Simpson was handled, and hundreds of shootings each day across the US.

Plus, since no one was actually hurt except his own wee wee, the man can be released to art therapy back in Yemen.

edutcher, how has Obama failed to keep us safe cmpared with your standard of Bush, who you say kept us safe? Were we safe on 9-11? Why politicize this?

This is the second incident in, what, a month?

No, we weren't safe on 9/11, but that was Willie Whitewater's doing. Blowing up an aspirin factory was a swell deterrent, but letting Bin Laden slip through his fingers when he was offered up on made us so much safer.

I'm not, you - Montagne, Galt, Ritmo, and whoever else you are - have been politicizing this since Dubya took the oath of office.

Jeremy said...

Are you going to blame President Obama for this too???

Why not? Somebody has been falling down on the job the last eleven months, because man-caused disasters aren't anywhere near as urgent as terrorism!

I'm not, you - Montagne, Galt, Ritmo, and whoever else you are - have been politicizing this since Dubya took the oath of office.

Yes, we! We are all one and the same! The Borg. (You will be assimilated). Hoi Polloi, plebeians, proles, rabble, you know. All of us are One. Same person, same embodiment, same ideas and opinions ALWAYS. No diversity of - oh wait.

Why not stop being a condescending jack-off and treat people as individuals for a change? Unless you prefer to group anyone you disagree with into one so as to better consolidate and empower their opposition against you.

Who knows, maybe that's the way you prefer it.

Either way, uniformity of thought and opinion is not a strength for a thinking species. If that's the way you prefer it on your end, fine. But I'd advise not to project.

But Matt, they can't do anything until Obama's left Hawaii. I thought that was perfectly clear. This guy was able to get that bomb on the plane because Obama was in Hawaii, not Chicago, or Camp David. The cops and investigators can't do crap because they can't hear Obama shouting instructions from Hawaii. Hawaii!

Pogo = I'm not defending Obama. I want much more from him. I want a clear, ringing support for the protesters in Iran. I want strength and leadership. I want gays and lesbians not to be thrown under the bush in between elections. Don't look to me for Obama bell-ringing.

Is he any more on duty without a tie? Please, we were all on vacation when it happened. Listened to one of the members of Bush's cabinet on NPR today and they said that there was nothing anyone could have done to prevent this guy coming on board. Please, back off. This is no more his fault than 9/11 was Bush's fault. How many planes are in the air every day, over how many countries all over the world? Get a grip!. He was not asleep at the wheel. Want to see asleep at the wheel? Go back to some of the reports on Katrina. There you will see a man truly asleep at the wheel. These were Americans in New Orleans, people that you righties say they are defending. Good, hard working people, getting screwed over by their Mayor, Governor and their President. That you can blame on him, not 9/11Back off on Obama, you jerks. I don't even like him and I think you are being just plain jack assed. (Not even sure that is a word)

The fact that you confuse the authenticity of data with how it was procured or with how it is presented shows that you still have much to learn about what science is, no matter how long ago you were in high school, with reactions and premature conclusions just as haphazard as they are now.

Looking more and more like a lot of that data was made up. Not the raw temperature data, of course, but rather, how it was put together. What raw data points were picked, which ones were adjusted, and which ones were dropped. Ditto for the proxies. Somehow they were good enough to eliminate the medieval warming period and little ice age, but not since 1960, because, apparently, they didn't show enough of an increase (or, rather, a decline that needed hiding).

The way things are going right now, I expect that a lot of the non-Gaea worshiping warmists are going to be looking back in a couple years wondering how they got sucked into the AGW scam.

Don't worry, Non-Haters! You're conversing with Wingers. You forget what a short attention span they have! Today it will be that he vacations too much... or in the wrong place... or during Christmas... or whatever. Yesterday it was some other non-crisis. Tomorrow it will be that he cuts his hair wrong.

These are the petty things that drive the fervid mind of The Winger. A species that almost cried out for the invention of methylphenidate. And all the other amphetamines that have become so common in the red states.

They live life (in a political sense) moment to moment, crisis to crisis. Hour to hour and minute to minute their emotional state changes, forever hinging on the tiniest word uttered from Obama's mouth.

In short...

They are the teenage girls of American politics.

And they really resent not being asked out on a date. So to speak.

They're pathetic. Stop listening to them! Wait until they turn into the spinsters they're destined to become in sixteen years or so. By then they'll be desperate enough to realize that something's wrong... and it's not just with the rest of the world.

Sixteen years. That's about how long it takes. Amazing what it'll do to a gal to wait until she's in her thirties or forties. Some people go right from adolescence into middle age... or even senescence.

Let them work it out on their own. I know Auntie Althouse isn't helping. But that's their choice to listen to her fantasies.

Ritmo*, I ask only pro forma, but why can't a fellow with pretensions to superiority such as yours eschew the unfailing vulgarity? Weren't you raised right by your mother and discouraged from such crudities? Or was/is that for squares in your family? Or are you in rebellion?

Like I said, pro forma. I don't expect a straight answer let alone, shall we say, compliance with my tacit request. But it's quite clear you think of yourself as the cock of the walk here. Is the perpetual abuse really worthy of your standards? Droog, up your game.

*and it is a courtesy to so call you; you are pretty much a usual suspect, even if unfairly, for any concerns of sockpuppetry on this blog. (I preferred MUL myself; though this graphic is eye-catching, I doubt you have any relevant linkage to Brazil.) I suppose it is a burden you must bear, but in the name of comity I at least am willing to call you by your current name, as long as you don't confuse me.

outside of a few rational beings, the rabid rat bastards on here are a real piece of work.

precisely what did you want Obama to do? get on air force one like bush did when the shively woman needed him to sign a bill into law? what dramatic gesture did you have in mind and what in the world would it have accomplished except to draw even more attention to the terrorists who put this fool up to the attampt.

sometimes the "we wanna gotcha" is so pitiful and predictable that it make me wretch.

I am so loving how it eats the Left up that the opposition dares to criticise Obama for EXACTLY the same things they went hydrophobic over with Bush. Didn't comment about the tsumani during his Christmas vacation? UNFEELING MONSTER. Obama? Oh, no he's entitled to his rest, you collective rodents!

I don't know, you tell me. Again, I don't think you read my post very well. Quite frankly, I think you have a knee jerk reaction to simply disagree regardless of the merits of the debate.

The fact that you confuse the authenticity of data with how it was procured or with how it is presented shows that you still have much to learn about what science is,

Well lets put it this way Ritmo. I know enough about science that when I see emails floating around from the researchers stating they 'corrected the data' to fit their conclusions its no longer science. I'm sorry that the facts get in the way of your deep set belief system but there it is.

The NYT reads Althouse and has softened the language. Now the "but wait, there's more" paragraph Ann quotes reads as follows:

"Although he had been out of sight for three days, he assured Americans he was on top of the situation. “We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable,” Mr. Obama said. “This was a serious reminder of the dangers that we face and the nature of those who threaten our homeland.”"

It took a long time for Bush's longview to be questioned. Only freaks and Dixie Chicks were even raising their voice years later. The knee jerk reactionthat this equals massive Obama fail is political.I wont blame this on some other administration,

"Now, did you fail to engage the author's actual point because you were too simplistic to realize it, or rather because you were so psychologically wed to the image of Obama as competent that you were incapable of even entertaining the author's point?"

"The White House complained about the increasing political attacks, noting that the system that failed to detect the suspect was put in place by President George W. Bush. “Some people can’t resist the temptation to turn every development into a partisan issue,” said David Axelrod, the president’s senior adviser." NYT-12-28-2009

No Mr. Axelrod, you certainly don't seem capable of resisting that temptation.

Well lets put it this way Ritmo. I know enough about science that when I see emails floating around from the researchers stating they 'corrected the data' to fit their conclusions its no longer science. I'm sorry that the facts get in the way of your deep set belief system but there it is.

The fact is that there are many, many ways of looking at data. And for you to assume that any emphasis on a presentation that fits in with a theory, can never be anything more than a nefarious, unscientific plot, again, shows what understanding you lack.

Are you aware that data is routinely thrown out for being outside of a statistically significant range?

If all that was ever done was to present all data, while disregarding patterns that emerge from some of it, then there would be no scientific discovery. Just the publication of endless numbers without any attempt at seeing where certain explanations might possibly apply.

Perhaps that fits into your understanding of the world. But it doesn't contribute to the understanding of the world that science has advanced over the last three thousand years.

Obama said:“We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable,This was a serious reminder of the dangers that we face and the nature of those who threaten our homeland.”

Hmmm, you know who might know a bit about who was involved, so that we might hold them accountable? The guy with the explosives in his underpants! It might be nice to be able to get a crack at some of that info, as supposedly Al Qaeda has some other attacks in the pipeline, and at the very least this guy might have some info as to some of those attacks, or at the very least the name of the guy who wired his johnson with explosives. And that info might be gathered if we could interrogate this guy. But no! that would be TORTURE! and besides, now that he's been arrested shouldn't he be fully mirandized, be given access to his lawyer and be allowed to not make any statements that will incriminate him? Ah well, no big loss. After all, there is no real terrorist threat anyway. It was all fear mongering by Boosh as per the libs.

Besides, now that the suspect who was caught with bomb materials in his jockstrap under the Obama administration, which treats such terrorism as criminal acts, we should presume innocence, even though we all know he is guilty. So as per Obama when describing this incident yesterday:"As the plane made its final approach to Detroit Metropolitan Airport, a passenger allegedly tried to ignite an explosive device on his body, setting off a fire."

Wait a second though, Obama. If it's only alleged that this guy tried to ignite a device to blow up the airplane, then why are we holding anyone accountable for anytyhing? Maybe he's innocent. Shouldn't the courts decide that? How is Obama presuming to hold people accountable who have yet to even be identified yet alone appear in our court system, when it hasn't even been established by our courts yet that this guy is in fact guilty of what he is alleged to have done?